Over the past several years, vehicle rollover accidents have become an increasing concern. Vehicles having a higher center of gravity are especially susceptible to rolling over in certain conditions. For example, a vehicle such as a sports utility vehicle is more likely to roll over at high speeds through a sharp curve in the road than a passenger vehicle which has a lower center of gravity. Much work has been devoted to developing control algorithms for actuating vehicle stability control systems to prevent rollover. For example, some algorithms utilize vehicle yaw rate sensors to anticipate a rollover condition and actuate various vehicle actuation systems such as the braking system, the suspension system, the powertrain, etc. to prevent the rollover from occurring.
While these prior art systems and methods for controlling and preventing rollover have achieved their intended purpose, problems still exist. For example, the actuation of the various known vehicle systems in some cases is ineffective to mitigate or inhibit vehicle rollover.
Therefore, there exists a need for a new and improved vehicle rollover prevention system. Such a system should be quickly actuatable once a vehicle rollover algorithm has determined that the vehicle is likely to rollover.